


Beauty Standards

by galpalaven



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Asexual Relationship, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Shepard Cousins, Shepard Survives, Tali is Bi and You Can't Convince Me Otherwise, because Commander Shepard is now Admiral Vakarian-Shepard, but this isn't 'Commander Shepard', first of all, hahaaaaa, this is Lieutenant-Commander Shepard turned Commander Shepard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-11 15:20:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11151156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galpalaven/pseuds/galpalaven
Summary: When you spend your whole life in a suit, you don’t have to worry about looks. When you suddenly don’t need the suit anymore, and the rest of the universe is very much about looks, it’s...different.





	Beauty Standards

“Tali!” Kira called as she propped the front door open with her foot, carefully maneuvering the groceries to keep from dropping them. “I’m home with the groceries. And takeout from that new dextro/levo sushi place by the store!”

Strangely, she didn’t hear anything from further in the house, even as she made her way into the kitchen to start putting things away. She wasn’t worried per se—the Reapers were dead and gone, and thanks to Sun (currently on her honeymoon, last she heard) the geth were friendly now and helping rebuild. It was really amazing, what they’d accomplished in so little time. Kira’d even seen a couple of kids running around at the playground a few blocks away, with no suits in sight.

Leaving their dinner on the stove, Kira frowned a little and wandered into the living room. “Tali? You here?”

“I’m…I’m in the bedroom,” came the quiet, muffled response.

“Are you alright?”

“…Fine.”

Kira kicked off her shoes as she moved through the house, tossing her bag on the sofa as she passed it on the way to the bedroom. She found the door ajar and, curious, she knocked on the door frame. “…Tali?”

“I—you can come in.”

“…You don’t sound so sure about that,” Kira began, but before she could say anything else, the door swung open, and she met her girlfriend’s glowing gaze, startled to find her without her suit on, only to notice that she was frowning.

“It looks stupid, doesn’t it?” Tali asked, obviously upset, holding her arms out from her sides.

Kira took that as an invitation to drop her gaze to the rest of her girlfriend—more lavender skin than she’d ever seen, her figure flattered by the loose sundress Kira had picked up for her ages ago. Her eyes caught on a dusting of freckles on Tali’s shoulders, glowing slightly in the evening sun shining through the window across the room. There were more freckles down her arms, and Kira let her hands run over them as she reached for Tali’s hands, squeezing gently. 

“It fits!” Kira laughed warmly, swinging her girlfriend’s hands in hers and stepping back a little to make a show of admiring the sundress. It was nothing special, really—it just looked soft when Kira saw it in the store, and she’d always figured if Tali didn’t want it, she could wear it. The thing that had stood out to her was the color, and the pattern, so very similar to the hood Tali’s suit came with. The pattern was a little more wavy, of course, and a bit bigger, but it had reminded her of Tali, so she’d bought it.

And it looked lovely, but Tali still seemed upset.

Untangling her hands, Tali rubbed at her face, running a hand over her bald head fretfully. “It doesn’t look as good as it does on you,” she complained, turning to walk back to the mirror further in the bedroom. She stopped in front of it, tangling her fingers in the flouncy fabric and tilting her head at her reflection. “I know it’s—silly, to be so worried about how it looks, I do, but…when you spend your whole life inside of a suit, you never have to think about what you look like. When you fell in love on the Flotilla, the chances of you really ever seeing your partner’s face very often weren’t very high anyway, so it still didn’t…but now that we don’t really need the suits…”

Kira sighed quietly, padding across the room and sliding her hands around Tali’s waist, pressing her palms to her hips and resting her chin on her shoulder. “…Now that you don’t need the suits, you feel like you need to think about your looks, too.”

“We don’t really have beauty standards,” Tali said, avoiding Kira’s gaze in the reflection, glowing eyes trained on where Kira’s hands bunched the fabric around her hips. Carefully, she placed her hands over Kira’s. “Not the way other species do, anyway. I mean, we recognize beauty in other species—for example, you are _beautiful_ and wonderful and lovely and your eyes are the prettiest shade of honey, but I’m—I don’t have a nose, Kira. Or hair. Or—“

“You are the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen,” Kira murmured, turning to trail her lips along her girlfriend’s cheek. 

“But I don’t look—“

“Tali’Zorah vas Rannoch, if I didn’t like the idea of dating a non-human, would I be dating a non-human?” She grinned at their reflection as Tali snapped her mouth shut. “I knew you wouldn’t look like a human before you ever took your mask off in front of me, Tali. I love the way you look. And now that I’ve seen more of you, I can tell you I’m especially fond of these glowing little freckles you have everywhere.”

The corners of Tali’s lips twitched. “You do?”

“They’re adorable,” Kira nodded, pressing a kiss to one bare shoulder. “Just like you.”

Tali leaned into her then, finally relaxing a little as Kira began to gently sway them on the spot. Their swaying turned into almost dancing after a moment, as Tali tangled her fingers through Kira’s and spun in her arms, until she could wrap her arms around Kira’s shoulders and press her forehead to hers. Kira’s hands still on her hips, she tilted her chin and kissed her softly, humming contentedly. Kira pulled away first, laughing as she said, “You know, Javik said quarians were attractive, too. It’s not just me.”

Tali rolled her eyes, shoving at Kira’s shoulders, which only made her giggle more. “I think Javik is more into asari, if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah,” Kira agreed easily, sobering up now, “but you’ve known from the beginning of this that I’m not in this because of physical attraction. I’m here because I love you, and I love being with you.”

“I love you, too,” Tali sighed, letting herself be reeled back in. They kissed for another moment, before Tali giggled and asked, “Is it a family thing with you Shepards, that you’d rather date people as far from human as you could get?”

Kira snorted. “Aftershocks of my dad’s horrific xenophobia, probably. I can’t speak for my cousin, but I know _I_ never quite got my ‘rebellious teenager’ phase in.” Kira kissed her girlfriend again, short and sweet. “Remind me to ask her why she thinks she’s into raptors when she gets back from her honeymoon.”

Tali laughed, shaking her head as Kira peppered a bunch of smaller kisses across her cheeks. “Oh, please, don’t. Neither of them will ever speak to us again.”

“Do you even know what a raptor is, Jitterbug?” Kira asked, but before Tali could answer, she dug her fingers into a spot on her hips that had Tali almost squealing, wriggling away from her touch.

“Stop, stop, it tickles, it _tickles_!” Tali gasped. She didn’t even know she _was_ ticklish, but…

“I’m ticklish there, too,” Kira chuckled as Tali tried to regain some of her dignity, smoothing the front of her sundress down and glancing in the mirror. Kira noticed she didn’t look upset anymore, back a little straighter as she looked at her reflection.

Good. Taking a deep breath, Kira smiled brightly and said, “You want dinner? I probably need to heat it up now, but—“

“I’m starving,” Tali agreed, slipping her hand into Kira’s and tugging her from the room. “Did I hear you say you got sushi?”

Kira just smiled and let herself be pulled along down the hall, marveling in the wave of affection that washed over her for the woman now wondering out loud what dextro sushi might taste like.

Maybe it was a Shepard thing—not falling in love with someone for being _non-human_ necessarily, but falling in love with someone for who they are, not what they’re made of. She’d have to ask Sun some time, but for now, she was content to sit in her tiny kitchen with her tiny, purple girlfriend, and try to teach her to use chopsticks with only three fingers.

**Author's Note:**

> I have this thing I call the Shepard Cousins AU which is Kira Shepard (seen here) was Lieutenant-Commander Shepard during the Trilogy. She joined her cousin, Sun Shepard (seen in my other fics with Garrus), on the Normandy during the events of Mass Effect 2, and fell in love with Tali. In 3, she and Sun went to the Crucible together, and since they're both biotics, together managed a strong enough barrier to get them both out alive after choosing Destroy.
> 
> Also EDI and the geth are fine because I'm convinced Ghost Boy is a liar after EDI explicitly tells you earlier in game that no constraints require her to give accurate data.
> 
> ANyway now you're all caught up~
> 
> also, concept art Tali is best Tali


End file.
